The God of the Hebrews was said to "ride on the heavens to help them, and on the clouds in his majesty...and drive their enemies out before them." Maybe this farmer from Ohio cares enough to ask for help from a God mighty in battle. The Presbyterian Scots-Irish settlers of western Pa and Ohio were reputed to be either your best friend or your worst enemy in time of battle.

It never occurred to me that "God watch over our troops" meant the same thing as "God is on our side."My niece hates "God Bless America." Interprets its intent as asking God to bless America to the exclusion of everyone else.

I can't figure out whether it was made by sophisticated artist to mock the sentiment expressed or by a naive artist to simply express the sentiment. Art flourishes in ambiguity, in the interstices between the lines. Part of the ambiguity is our ignorance of the artist. This would be a different picture if we truly knew what his aim was.

I never imagined that John would be an Althouse reader.... Oh well, quality attracts quality.

Let me say that John's "Crossroads Arabia" blog is a must for those interested in a very important part of the world (even if he is much too kind on Islam for my taste).

John is right. Muslims say "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is the Greatest), not "Allah is with us." This is the standard battlecry used by Muslims when attacking infidels (or even other Muslims) since the days of Mohammad.

Regarding the art, I am not sure ... It may represent "everyman", that is why is is so crude (but intriging).

Anyway, the best comment on asking for God's help in wartime belongs, unsurprisingly, to Lincoln: "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side."Interesting. This discussion and the quote from Lincoln parallel quite precisely a small flap that you may remember regarding Sarah Palin's invocation of God's blessing at a service for some departing troops.

Charlie Gibson, who knows the difference between subjunctive and indicative moods, deliberately misquoted Gov. Palin in the indicative, when she had unambiguously spoken in the subjunctive. When she protested at being misquoted, his exact words were, "Exact words." But this was a damnable lie, the first of many.

Sarah Palin even referred to the Lincoln analogy later, which makes sense because she had said essentially the same thing as Lincoln. For this completely valid, logical, and accurate attempt at explanation, she drew even more media vilification in the vein of "You're no Lincoln, chickie."

I'm not saying that she distinguished herself in the Couric interviews, but from my perspective she did just fine in the Gibson interview.